GP4: Formula E Gen3 Template Pack

It's rather unusual for me to create mods for GP4 that are not F1 related, but this is my first release that extends outside of F1, it's the Formula E Gen3 car. 

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

First used in the 2022-23 season, the Gen3 car is the third generation car used by Formula E since its inception, boasting more power and a battery designed by Williams Advanced Engineering. Created once more by Spark, this supercedes the previous SRT05e car and can now reach 200mph. It's wider and more robust for some argy-bargy action.

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

I have to say, I'm not the biggest Formula E fan, I watch it every now and again and I enjoy some aspects of it. So why am I doing this mod? The draw for me to do this mod is firstly that this is a spec series, so one car shape for the whole grid, one set of tyres and so on. It's also a car used for multiple seasons, so there's a bit of longevity. Also there haven't been many cars released with templates for use in leagues and personal mods, so I hope this fills a gap. It's too much work for me to do a whole mod by myself, in fact, outside of the 3D and 2D work, I'm far from being an expert at other aspects of mod building. In essence, this is a gift to the community. 

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

What you'll find in this pack is the Gen 3 car which is GP4 ready. The shape is not locked so that you can easily amend the texture names for your liveries. You'll find a car template and a driver template, which I hope are easy enough to use.

This template was created using Photopea. It's basically a free version of Photoshop but you can use it in a web browswer, and you can link it up with your cloud storage, giving you great flexibility to edit your textures. 

I've tried to label where each part is, and you can quickly recolour the car as below.

I've been using the same driver body for the last few years now, and I ought to improve it, but it's not too bad. I've included a template for this as well, and it's quite quick to change the base colour and add details on as below. 

Once you have created your textures, save it under a different unique name. Then you will need to open the car (quickest in GP4Builder), click on Tools and Rename Textures, and change FE_1 to the name of your livery. You can also change Driver.tga to the name of your new driver racesuit filename. Save as a new file and you have a new team ready to insert into GP4.

I've also quickly put together an internal cockpit template. To preview the cockpit, you need to keep it as the name of the file (cpt_jor_art2.tga). However, when you convert to Tex file, the naming convention is simply cp_TEAMNAME.tex.

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

This is not designed to be an in depth tutorial, just enough pointers to get you started. I hope this encourages you to have a go and paint a real livery or a fantasy livery to your liking. Please share your creations, I only ask you remember to mention me as the author of the base work. 

Tweaker positions

The helmet position is not perfect, but close enough if you use helmets by Jvinu. Sorry, that’s all I’ve got for you for now, the rest you’ll have to work out. 

[HELMET POSITIONS] 

driver1 = 0.0000,  0.1400,  -0.3600

[TYRE_POSITIONS_CAR1]

FrontRight      =  0.6997, -0.2293,  1.1990

FrontLeft       = -0.6997, -0.2293,  1.1990

RearRight       =  0.6967, -0.2293, -1.7737

RearLeft        = -0.6967, -0.2293, -1.7737 

[REAR_LIGHT_DATA]

VALUE02        =   3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3,  3

[REAR_LIGHT_AMBIENT01_POS]

CAR01           =   0.0000, -0.1863, -2.6619

[REAR_LIGHT_AMBIENT02_POS]

CAR01           =  0.4357,  0.1077, -2.4800

[REAR_LIGHT_AMBIENT03_POS]

CAR01           =  -0.4357,  0.1077, -2.4800

Rims & Tyres

You'll also find a set of Hankook tyres, with a couple of variations, which can be applied using the performance file in GpxPatch. The rubber incorporates bio-material and sustainable rubber and the same tyre is used in the wet and the dry, which makes it much easier to create in GP4. 

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

You'll find two lots of treads, plain rubber (FE_tread...) and the one where the grooves are coloured red and blue (FE2_tread...).

The standard rim (wheel_FE...) is used my the majority of teams, but there are a few teams that have their own specific textures:

• DS Penske (wheel_FEds...)
• Envision Racing (wheel_FEenv...)
• NEOM McLaren (wheel_FEneom...)
• NIO 333 Racing (wheel_FEnio...)

Here is a sample of the performance file: 

[Team #00]

Name=DS Penske,DS E-Tense FE23

Performance=

First Driver=1,Stoffel Vandoorne

Second Driver=25,Jean-Eric Vergne

[Team #01]

Name=Nio 333,Nio 333 ER9

Performance=

First Driver=3,Sergio Sette Camara

Second Driver=33,Dan Ticktum

[Team #02]

Name=ABT CUPRA,Mahindra M9Electro

Performance=

First Driver=4,Robin Frijns

Second Driver=51,Kelvin van der Linde

[Team #03]

Name=NEOM McLaren,Nissan E-4ORCE 04

Performance=

First Driver=5,Jake Hughes

Second Driver=58,Rene Rast

[Team #04]

Name=Maserati MSG,Maserati Tipo Folgore

Performance=

First Driver=7,Maximilian Gunther

Second Driver=48,Edoardo Mortara

[Team #05]

Name=Mahindra,Mahindra M9Electro

Performance=

First Driver=8,Oliver Rowland

Second Driver=11,Lucas di Grassi

[Team #06]

Name=Jaguar TCS,Jaaguar I-Type 6

Performance=

First Driver=9,Mitch Evans

Second Driver=10,Sam Bird

[Team #07]

Name=Porsche,Porsche 99X Electric

Performance=

First Driver=13,Antonio Felix da Costa

Second Driver=94,Pascal Wehrlein

[Team #08]

Name=Envision,Jaguar I-Type 6

Performance=

First Driver=16,Sebastien Buemi

Second Driver=37,Nick Cassidy

[Team #09]

Name=Nissan,Nissan

Performance=

First Driver=17,Norman Nato

Second Driver=23,Sacha Fenestraz

[Team #10]

Name=Andretti,Porsche 99x Electric

Performance=

First Driver=27,Jake Dennis

Second Driver=36,Andre Lotterer

This just calls out the names of the tex files. 

[TyreTextureNames]

Name #00=FE

Name #01=FE2

Name #02=FEds

Name #03=FEenv

Name #04=FEneom

Name #05=FEnio

Then you want to apply them to specific teams (here's team 1 for example)

[TreadTextures] 

TEAM #00 = 0 

TEAM #01 = 1

 

Alternatively, you can get driver 1 to run different treads to driver 2

[TreadTextures]

Team #00=1,0

Team #01=0,1

Team #02=1,0

Team #03=0,1

Team #04=1,0

Team #05=0,1

Team #06=1,0

Team #07=0,1

Team #08=1,0

Team #09=0,1

Team #10=1,0

For the sidewalls, then you call the correct textures as follows:

[WheelTextures]

Team #00=2

Team #01=5

Team #02=0

Team #03=4

Team #04=0

Team #05=0

Team #06=0

Team #07=0

Team #08=3

Team #09=0

Team #10=0

Finally, you can set the rim colours in the performance file as well (although the settings will be the same in GP4Tweaker). 

[RimColors]

Team #00=808080

Team #01=808080

Team #02=808080

Team #03=808080

Team #04=808080

Team #05=808080

Team #06=808080

Team #07=808080

Team #08=808080

Team #09=808080

Team #10=808080

 

Internal Steering Wheel

There is an internal cockpit with a template, as well as an internal steering wheel ready made. You will have to play around a bit with the positions, but it should work well. 

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu

1. Just below the number 1 are the three warning lights, red for red flag, yellow for yellow flag (slow down, incident ahead), and blue for blue flag (move out the way of the leaders). 
2. This is the water temperature. Don't let this get too high or the engine will overheat. 
3. Lap counter. 
4. Rev counter. 
5. The battery is just for show and doesn't do anything, but the large letter/number is the gear. 
6. Speedometer. 
7. Lap time.
8. Position
9. Fuel left (in number of laps)
10. Pit icon - green for request to pit, red for team-mate has requested to pit. 
11. Difficulty level. Switch to the left means easiest setting, to the right means most difficult. 
12. Opposition spread. Other drivers at GpxPatch performance levels, all the same, or random. 
13. Driver status. Middle is off, left is green, to the right is red. 
14. Driver Aids. When the button is up, the driver aid is on. F1 for auto-brakes, F2, auto-gears etc. There are not enough buttons to do the steering help, TC is for traction control, LC is for launch control. 
15. I've mapped these to indicate damage. The left side is dedicated to the front end of the car, with two lights for each of the front wheels, and the third light for damage to the front wing. 
16. The two blue lights on either side of this display will flash when any one of the flags are being waved. This will flash along with the correct flag on the screen. 
17. I've mapped the silver lights to plank damage. Each light refers to a specific part of the plank. 
18. I've mapped these to indicate damage. The right side is dedicated to the rear of the car, with two lights for each of the two rear wheels and the third light for any damage to the rear wing. 

Formula E Car & Template for GP4 by fongu